I have heard that many of you are wondering what I’m
spending my time doing over here in the Philippines. I am a student missionary
working with Adventist Frontier Missions (AFM) on the “Palawan Project.” It’s
located in the mountains of the southern end of the island of Palawan. There is
a school, church, and clinic here. I spend most of my time working in the
clinic as one of the 5 nurses that are here. Working in the clinic is a full
time job and very different then in the states. Here we do the diagnosing,
prescribing, med preparations and minor surgical procedures that need to be
done. We are the night & day time RN’s. Whenever we have in-patients it’s a
bitter-sweet experience. We all get a lot less sleep, but we have a tremendous
opportunity to befriend and minister spiritually to the patients and their
families. We all speak Palawan here. So much of the time is devoted to language
learning. It takes a lot of self’ discipline and perseverance, but the payoff
is well worth it.
On Sabbath we have church and Sabbath School followed by
potluck where we all eat with our hands. Afterward we split up and go visiting
the villages near by, telling Bible stories, praying and teaching them songs.
It’s quite and experience telling Bible stories in a language you hardly know.
Luckily, Nuwi one of the local Palawans goes with us and knows the stories as
well as some English so together we can get the point across.
Sundays all the people around come to Kementiyan and meet to visit, play basketball & volleyball, and buy and sell things. This all happens right behind the Klinik. Sundays are our busiest days. Patients are often times lining up on the front porch by 7:30am and sometimes we are still seeing patients until 5:00pm.
I have learned a lot since being here. For instance, how to run a mission's clinic, how to speak a different language and live in a different culture. I've noticed my perspective has changed some. I've realized many of the things I once thought I needed I really can do without.
A few nights ago Natasha (one of the elementary school teachers) and I headed out to Mislinda & Bubin's house. We had made plans to come eat supper with their family. We brought camp bread and popcorn, and they made sengley (sweet potatoes). It was very delicious! While we were eating, it started to rain, so they invited us to stay the night. We were very excited and were hoping that might happen so we had thrown in a sheet, just in case. We snuggled in with three of the other girls on the hard bamboo floor. The night was a bit chilly so we were thankful for the extra body heat. It was our first night sleeping in a Palawan's home, and it was certainly a night to remember. I was expecting to not get a whole lot of sleep because of the cool weather and hard bamboo, but I was not expecting to also get wet. The rain kept falling, which was fine until the wind also started to blow. Palawano's huts aren't entirely weather proof, in fact, they hardly are at all. Around 10:00 that night a huge typhoon swept through our valley. Every once in a while you would get a spray of rain in your face or be shaken awake because the whole hut was swaying with the wind. By about 4:30 am we all decided it was close enough to morning, so we all sat up and huddled together under my sheet which helped break some of the wind and rain. To pass the time, we began singing Palawan songs, told the story of when Jesus walked on water, and had a prayer. By around 6:45 am the rain still hadn't let up, but we decided we had better get back so we could get the clinic opened by 8:00 am. After finding my shoes that had gotten blown around in the storm, we headed out hoping we wouldn't fall on the slippery mud. It took longer than normal as several trees had fallen over the trail and it was filled with rushing water. At the very end of the trail is a creek with a log arching over it so you can cross. Doing that in the pouring rain with a basket hanging from your head, and bamboo branches in your way is quite a challenge. Out of all the nights we could have stayed with the Palawans, we were very thankful it was this night. Going through this experience with them helped us understand them a lot better and what everyday life was like for them.
Sundays all the people around come to Kementiyan and meet to visit, play basketball & volleyball, and buy and sell things. This all happens right behind the Klinik. Sundays are our busiest days. Patients are often times lining up on the front porch by 7:30am and sometimes we are still seeing patients until 5:00pm.
I have learned a lot since being here. For instance, how to run a mission's clinic, how to speak a different language and live in a different culture. I've noticed my perspective has changed some. I've realized many of the things I once thought I needed I really can do without.
A few nights ago Natasha (one of the elementary school teachers) and I headed out to Mislinda & Bubin's house. We had made plans to come eat supper with their family. We brought camp bread and popcorn, and they made sengley (sweet potatoes). It was very delicious! While we were eating, it started to rain, so they invited us to stay the night. We were very excited and were hoping that might happen so we had thrown in a sheet, just in case. We snuggled in with three of the other girls on the hard bamboo floor. The night was a bit chilly so we were thankful for the extra body heat. It was our first night sleeping in a Palawan's home, and it was certainly a night to remember. I was expecting to not get a whole lot of sleep because of the cool weather and hard bamboo, but I was not expecting to also get wet. The rain kept falling, which was fine until the wind also started to blow. Palawano's huts aren't entirely weather proof, in fact, they hardly are at all. Around 10:00 that night a huge typhoon swept through our valley. Every once in a while you would get a spray of rain in your face or be shaken awake because the whole hut was swaying with the wind. By about 4:30 am we all decided it was close enough to morning, so we all sat up and huddled together under my sheet which helped break some of the wind and rain. To pass the time, we began singing Palawan songs, told the story of when Jesus walked on water, and had a prayer. By around 6:45 am the rain still hadn't let up, but we decided we had better get back so we could get the clinic opened by 8:00 am. After finding my shoes that had gotten blown around in the storm, we headed out hoping we wouldn't fall on the slippery mud. It took longer than normal as several trees had fallen over the trail and it was filled with rushing water. At the very end of the trail is a creek with a log arching over it so you can cross. Doing that in the pouring rain with a basket hanging from your head, and bamboo branches in your way is quite a challenge. Out of all the nights we could have stayed with the Palawans, we were very thankful it was this night. Going through this experience with them helped us understand them a lot better and what everyday life was like for them.
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